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Identifying and Addressing Obstacles Through Inner Development for Spiritual Progress · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  It is a somewhat natural tendency in human nature to
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  blame others or circumstances or fate when obstacles arise.
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  We tend to bemoan how unfair life can be.
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  We see conspiracies and power structures that are preventing
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  us from accomplishing what it is that we believe we are meant to
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  accomplish. Few people look at what happens
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  in their lives and in their inner struggles as a window to
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  their own condition. The idea that the obstacle is
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  within us, not something external, does not easily find
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  favour in anyone's mind. This standpoint also occurs for
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  many who take up the spiritual path, particularly in early
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  stages. We then hear people say that if
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  only they had more time they would meditate or study more, or
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  if they did not have to work at some job to earn money, they
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  would be free to follow their spiritual pursuits.
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  Or or or ad infinitum. There is always a mixture of
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  forces at work, a concatenation of events that crystallize
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  around us at all times. These forces are larger and more
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  powerful than our individuality as a separate ego consciousness
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  and speak to general trends, directions and developments that
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  we will experience one way or the other.
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  The issue then, is not that these forces impinge upon us,
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  but lies in the way that we respond to them.
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  For the spiritual seeker, every circumstance is an opportunity
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  for reinforcing the aspiration, the dedication, the
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  consecration, the faith. Every challenge acts as
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  something of a mirror that exposes us to the inward
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  psychological reality that we are meant to work on.
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  To create a new psychological standpoint to align with the
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  evolutionary intention in the divine manifestation.
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  To carry out what Trioro Bindo has termed yoga to be applied
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  psychology. This psychology is for the inner
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  work, the exploration of inner space, the change of human
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  nature from within, one element, one movement, one reaction at a
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  time. What Triorobindo calls the
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  adventure of consciousness and joy in his epic poem Savitri.
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  A legend and a symbol, Triorbindo notes quote.
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  These obstacles are usual in the first stages of the Sadhna.
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  They are due to the natured being not yet sufficiently
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  receptive. You should find out where the
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  obstacle is in the mind or the vital, and try to widen the
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  consciousness there. Call in more purity and peace,
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  and in that purity and peace offer that part of your being
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  sincerely and wholly to the Divine power.
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  End Quote. Reference Srioro Bindo, Faces of
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  Yoga, Chapter 3 in difficulty, page 39.